


one time for the present, two times for the past

by pumpkinpaperweight



Series: filling in canon [4]
Category: The School for Good and Evil - Soman Chainani
Genre: F/M, Gen, ONE TRUE KING SPOILERS. SO MANY, OTK SPOILERS BTW, bit depressing but nothing too bad, justice for nicola, post otk, this is like the canon astgo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:14:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24662125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pumpkinpaperweight/pseuds/pumpkinpaperweight
Summary: There are things that the storybook doesn't tell you.It doesn't have time for everything.--Around the end of one true king, agatha, nicola, and tedros grapple with their past and their futures.
Relationships: Agatha/Tedros (The School for Good and Evil)
Series: filling in canon [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651123
Comments: 14
Kudos: 100





	one time for the present, two times for the past

**Author's Note:**

> SET POST-OTK, SO THERE ARE SOME MEGA SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ OTK

There are things that the storybook doesn't tell you.

It doesn't have time for everything.

It doesn't have time for

_ Agatha _

There is a jump in time. She has read the book, and it jumps. From the triumphant victory to the wedding, like all good fairy tales.

It doesn't have time for the swarm of other royals, babbling desperately, grasping Tedros's hands and clasping his knees and kissing the Storian ring, desperate to atone for their mistakes. Tedros is gracious, he smiles and he listens to apologies and he thankfully accepts offers of money, trade deals, designers for the wedding, ball invites, but he is so white he is almost grey and he cannot look at Excalibur at his belt. 

Agatha stands silently by his side, clutching his arm, as flashes from Spellcasts and fingerglows blind her and people shout-- her name, Tedros's, Sophie's. The media have already arrived. They hadn't even had time to leave Foxwood before they'd swarmed. She cannot focus on anyone, not that she needs to. All the attention is on Tedros; it's Tedros, they're shouting Tedros, Tedros, Tedros--

Tedros who she's just seen  _ die _ . 

She grips his arm harder. He's not dead. He's not  _ dead _ . 

Tedros is King, and Japeth isn't. Japeth is dead, and Tedros isn't. 

_ (But I  _ **_saw_ ** _ Tedros die.) _

She digs her fingers into his shirt, struggling to ground herself. If it hurts, Tedros doesn't react. He doesn't do much, but Agatha thinks he shifts to stand closer to her. She doesn't know. Tedros can't talk to her, not with the King of Foxwood grovelling on his face at his feet and the reporters hollering at them.

"Aggie." Says Sophie from just behind her, clearly noticing how out of it she looks. "Come on, we'll go wait by the carriages--"

But the idea of letting Tedros out of her sight fills Agatha with such panic that she shakes her head desperately. Sophie relents and stays standing with them, spitting searing responses to stupid questions and holding Agatha's free hand tightly. 

(If you look, you can find records of those moments-- in archives, libraries, tiny footnotes in school books. Some artists have doctored their renditions, so that Tedros and Agatha look stately and august, but there’s sketches and a few flickering Spellcasts that are loyal to the blank, haunted look in Agatha’s eyes and how Tedros flinches every time someone says Japeth’s name. There are a few crumpled opinion pieces from the  _ Camelot Courier  _ and the  _ Jaunt Jolie Journal, _ expressing concern for their fabulous new royal couple. Generally, people politely pretend they don’t exist. Agatha looks at them sometimes.)

The storybook doesn’t have time for how they're ushered down a dirt track and crammed into a selection of those stupid little Camelot carriages with flags on the corners to return to the School, seven or so to one. Agatha, Tedros, Sophie and the Coven end up together, and all stare at one another, white-faced and wordless in the fading sunset. Agatha wedges herself in-between Tedros and Sophie, and they pass the drive in silence.

If Tedros cries, the Coven pretend not to notice. 

As they drive, they pass celebrations-- street parties, fireworks, music. Tedros turns wearily away from the window, but Agatha stares hatefully out at them. They’re clearly having the same thought.

If Japeth had won, the only difference would be the face on the posters.

The storybook doesn't have time for the fact that, by the time they get to the School, hours later, Agatha can barely curl her hand out of the shape it's been in. She's left the imprint of her fingers on Tedros's arm. He doesn't seem to care, and they stagger across the grass to the lights of Good without waiting to be told where to go, or what to do. 

They end up in Agatha's room in Purity, crammed together on her rickety old bed. Agatha thinks she'd heard something about returning to old dorms, but she never had any roommates in the first place and Tedros doesn't have any left. If they're not supposed to be here together, no one's had the heart to tell them.

She tries to sleep, because, practically, she should, and yet it's fitful and punctuated with scims and swords and--

But every time she wakes up, Tedros is still awake, to smooth her hair and mutter reassurances until she starts awake again and starts the cycle again and--

It will fade, Tedros points out. Logically, she knows he's not going anywhere.

It's true, but it doesn't stop them following each other around and getting agitated when one of them is gone for more than ten minutes. There's a reason Tedros is at the dress fitting, even if it had meant dirty looks from the nymphs and hysterical babbling about bad luck from Anemone. She pays her no mind. They’ve had more than their fair share of bad luck. 

But the storybook doesn’t have time to dwell on  _ that _ . There’s a wedding to attend. 

_ Nicola _

The storybook doesn’t have time for Nicola at all. 

There is no triumphant ending, for Nicola. Or ending in general. Her dramatic debut into the story has fizzled out, and she has been left in limbo.

She had expected… something, at least. Anything. Maybe she’d be summoned to join Agatha’s court, or remain as one of the Knights of Eleven, or-- or--

She watches Hort and Sophie kiss on the dancefloor of Tedros and Agatha’s wedding, oblivious to Nicola’s shaky attempt at a revenge rebound boyfriend, and wonders what she did wrong. Why isn’t she allowed a happy ending? Did she say something she shouldn’t have? Was she too rude? Maybe she was too rude. Maybe she should have just shut up and listened to Sophie and Agatha. Maybe--

_ No _ , she tells herself fiercely. She didn’t do anything wrong.

So why isn’t she allowed a Happily Ever After, then? It doesn’t make sense. Logically, it doesn’t. Everyone in a fairy tale gets a Happily Ever After, except the villain. Nicola’s not the villain. And she doesn’t think Yoshi is her happy ending-- he’s very nice, but he’s perfectly aware of his status as Revenge Arm Candy and is really only here so he can say he’s been to a royal wedding. 

So, what to do? The storybook has forgotten Nicola. It seems everything she loves is betraying her, now. First Hort, now books. 

…she’ll go back to school. Yes, that’s what she’ll do. She’ll go back to school and get top marks and graduate as a Leader, and then she’ll get her  _ own  _ fairy tale, one so big and bright and beautiful that the storybook couldn’t ignore her if it tried. She’ll have been in  _ two  _ fairytales, and this time, she’ll be rewarded for her hard work and intelligence and wit. 

She will, she will. 

Yes, she will.

Then Agatha comes bounding over to ask her to dance, wedding dress hiked up to her knobbly knees, beaming and smelling of Tedros’s aftershave, and Nicola knows at least one person who has time for her, even if that goddamned book doesn’t.

_ Tedros _

The storybook doesn’t have time for Tedros once he’s served his purpose, apparently. Well, that’s fine. Everyone thinks he was very brave and very clever, so it’s fine. Why should he still think about his own death, right?

He had expected it, and he had let it happen, and his plan had worked. It’s fine. 

It’s fine. 

Just fine.

(He enchants his necklaces with wards, now. Oh, and he wears high collars. And everyone sees him go white when someone suggests beheading those traitorous Mistral Sisters. He wakes up clutching his own neck and Agatha has to pry his hands off, sometimes.)

(And he doesn’t like apples, anymore.)

He’s stronger for it, but he’s not quite convinced it was worth it. 

And sometimes, he swears he can still see spots of blood on Excalibur’s blade. He’s started leaving it in the Gallery of Kings. He doesn’t need to carry it around, like his father did. He doesn’t need the stupid sword to consolidate his power. 

(The whole point, of course, is that he  _ did  _ need it to consolidate his power, and he resents that heavily.) 

Perhaps he’ll have a new one made. One for him, and his children, and his children’s children. One with less of his blood on it. One that doesn’t come with crushing pressure and expectation forged into it. Just a sword. A nice one. But just a sword. 

The Kingdom Council were scandalised when he suggested it. He doesn’t see why. He doesn’t want to be stuck in the past. The past has done him no favours. It has taught him lots of lessons, but he doesn’t think he can count them as favours. 

_ Agatha _ thinks it’s a good idea, anyway.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Agatha: *sees her fiance get beheaded*  
> Agatha: ... anyway I was thinking I could wear some bedazzled clumps for my wedding--
> 
> this is a mess and I haven't had it edited and it's probably pretentious as all fuck since it's one of THOSE basic ao3 fics but like, I find it highly unlikely tedros and agatha were just okay w what happened to them, and I was MAD AS HELL about nicola and her non-ending. I actually want her to be school master but I felt that she'd still wanna go back to school lmao, her one true love is learning so. maybe once she graduates.


End file.
